After Idling Its Factory, LG Chem Expands Production of Electric-Vehicle Batteries in Michigan

Stephen Lacey is the Editor-in-Chief of Greentech Media. He manages a team of writers focused on solar, storage, efficiency, mobility, and grid modernization. He is producer/host of The Energy Gang and Interchange podcasts, two leading interview and analysis shows on the business of energy and cleantech.

With a history that involves paying people not to work, the fact that LG Chem is going to hire more people for its electric-vehicle battery plant in Holland, Michigan is good news on a couple of fronts for the Korean company.

The South Korea-based LG Chem is holding a job fair at the factory about 30 miles west of Grand Rapids. The company wants to double its workforce this year to "several hundred people." LG Chem, whose factory notably makes the cells for General Motors' Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle battery, is looking for everything from technical operators to maintenance workers to production supervisors.

New York issued its long-awaited environmental assessment of fracking Wednesday detailing a wide range of health and climate concerns that underpinned Governor Andrew Cuomo's decision last December to impose a statewide ban on the practice.

High-volume hydraulic fracturing "raises new, significant, adverse impacts not studied" in the state's last major analysis of oil and gas development in 1992, the 2,000-page report concludes.

TechCrunch: Google’s Self-Driving Cars Will Hit Public Roads in Mountain View This Summer

Google is shifting its self-driving car program up a gear, after it announced that it will begin testing autonomous vehicles on public roads in Mountain View this summer.

The company, which this week revealed that its fleet has experienced just 11 accidents in six years of tests (each of which it put down to human drivers), now has the green light to take things further.

Have you ever treated your windshield with Rain-X or bought eyeglasses with an antireflective coating? A new technology combines the benefits of both in a unique glass coating that can improve tomorrow’s solar panels, lenses, detectors, windows and many other products.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory looked to some surprising sources of inspiration when developing the new technology: moths' eyes (which are anti-reflective) and lotus leaves (which are water-repellant).

Regulators say there's a "high probability" a nuclear plant under construction in Georgia will be delayed even longer than the three years already announced by its owners, according to an analysis obtained by The Associated Press.

Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power and its co-owners are building two more nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia. A project using the same reactor design, Westinghouse Electric Co.'s AP1000, is underway at the Summer nuclear station in South Carolina, which has seen similar delays.